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Kits you'd like to see, but hey, you know they ruined the molds.


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Every time I see "prolly" used in a thread I don't take it too seriously, and I'd pick state of the art, Art.

Reading this response I assume you don't know Art personally, or even by reputation. If you did, you'd not question his credibility. I know him personally, and I can tell you without question that I don't know anyone else who is as knowledgeable about automobile history or model car history than Art.

Edited by Jeff Johnston
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Parts from the Sizzler ended up in the School Bus, also a Tom Daniel's kit .

Daddy...I dind't know about the Sizzler parts in the S'cool bus. Which parts made the leap? Thanks for the insight on that one! TIM

UPDATE - in reading the rest of this thread, I see some are questioning this. I have the Sizzler kit but not sure I have the S'Cool Bus...wonder if anyone can pull out the kits and look (and photographs would be even better).

I think it somewhat unlikely that an old kit like the Sizzler would have been used to source the Daniell one-off's like the S'cool....that's why this statement caught my interest.

TIM

Edited by tim boyd
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So i Guess there are gone forever.

In all likelihood the tooling for the Tyrone Malone Super Boss/Boss Truck of America still exists. The kits were produced in 1978 and 1979, but didn't really hit a lot of popularity at the time. Chances are, however, that all licensing has expired though.

Art

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You would think if Moebius can tool up brand new tools for the 67-72 series Ford Pickups, that Round2 could fix the molds for the 70's Dodge pickups that were converted into monster trucks in the 80s. I have one of the Dodge Monster trucks and it appears that the hood and original 4x4 drivetrain is all that would be necessary to get it back into production.

I am not an accountant or tooling engineer, but I don't think with todays' technology that it would take much to get these kits back on the shelf and make a ton of modelers happy. They could offer a 2wd & 4wd version and with The Modelhaus having parts, we could create different years on our own.

My first reply to this was a bit too brief, and a bit too flippant: Most people assume that when a model kit tool is seriously modified, say as in the case of the pickup kits that were converted from stock configuration to monster or crusher truck model kits, that the original steel dies were merely re-cut. In all likelihood that was not the case; rather it's more than likely that new inserts for the body molds were created for the altered wheel arches, etc. To explain this more thoroughly:

To create the tooling for a one-piece body shell (car body, truck cab for instance) requires a series of movable sliding "core molds" that in the injection molding process, move inward to close up the body mold, and then once the molten plastic has been injected and has cooled to solidify, slide back or outwards to release the molded shell so that it can be removed (ejected) from the mold. That's where all those mold parting lines we modelers love to hate come from. For almost any one-piece body or truck cab, it takes at least six sliding cores to mold it: Inner core (inside surfaces), front core, rear core, right side core, left side core and upper core. Now, if only say, the body sides are to be changed as dramatically as with the monster truck kits, just the two side sliding cores need be changed--given the nature of hardened tool steel, that's not easily done, so more than likely new side slide cores and a new inner core mold were created to fit the original body tooling. The question then becomes--do the original slides that were changed out still exist (likely they do) and if so, are they in a usable condition today? IF they were preserved with a coating of cosmoline then likely yes, if not, rust likely will have made them unusable today.

Next comes the job of finding all that stuff: While the main mold bases probably are readily identifiable, a lot of the tooling inside them was done as "inserts", smaller steel blocks engraved to make various parts, and those may well have been removed, replaced with newly cut inserts for subsequent versions. Finding and identifying those could be a major problem, particularly for AMT tooling, given that AMT's tooling has changed hands several times over the past 35 or so years, and been moved at least three times over hundreds if not thousands of miles (from Troy MI to Baltimore MD, then to Dyersville IA, and now to South Bend IN) and most all of it was made before the introduction of computer databases to track all those various bits and pieces of tooling--even the internal "house" codes used to ID a lot of those changed several times--it now becomes a matter of someone who is knowledgeable about this stuff to literally sort through probably several hundred tons of tools (those old original mold bases weigh at minimum, at least a ton apiece--you aren't just going to pick one up with your bare hands, open it up to see what's inside), and all those extra tool inserts are likely in a myriad of heavy wooden crates as well. This means literally looking at each and every bit of tooling, and identifying them as to what subject they truly are.

All of this is the basis for my earlier comment that it may well be less expensive to simply make all new tooling than to try and rehabilitate something cut decades ago--meaning that in either case, it is likely to be a major investment.

Art

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Technology, be it 21st Century or something harking back to what some people today think of as the dark ages--it will cost $$. Now the question becomes: "Do you want to see the same old, same old kit from 40-50 yrs ago, or would you rather see something done as state of the art 2012?" You can think about that, then answer.

Art

The answer....and here comes my legal training into play, is, "it depends."

If it's a really cool kit that probably wouldn't be cut as an all-new tool now, yes, I'd like to see it restored. Or if the original kit was really well-done.

Similarly, if we need an all-new kit because it was either never done or the existing molds are an engineering horror show for whatever reason (missing parts, done really wrong initially, screwed up by some variation,) then cut the mold.

Example of really well-done and that I'd like to see come back- the Monogram and MPC classics. I love those kits.

Charlie Larkin

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Whatever happened to the old Renwal Revival kits? The modern versions of classic cars.

Renwal closed up in the late 1960's or early 1970's, one of the original makers of plastic toys and hobby kits. Some tooling was bought by Revell (Renwal was the original mfr of the "Visible V8" kit for example). Some model car kit subjects from Renwal made it into Revell's lineup, notably the 1/12 scale '65 Mustang Fastback and the 1/12 scale Mercedes Benz 300SL Gullwing coupe, along with much of the armor kits that Renwall produced in the late 1950's. Some other Renwal tooling was acquired by Glencoe Models as well.

As for the "Revival" series of car kits--those started in the mind of Virgil Exner Sr., who was the chief stylist at Chrysler from 1953-l962; as renderings for an article about what the great Classic Cars of the 20's and 30's might look like in 1966 if still in production (Mercer, Stutz, Duesenberg, Packard, Jordan Playboy, Bugatti), in Esquire Magazine about 1964 or so. Two of the designs were actually built as real cars: The Mercer-Cobra, coachbuilt by Ghia on a 289 Cobra chassis for the American Copper & Brass Association (all the trim, and the cast wheels, were in copper, bronze and brass), and the Bugatti 101C also got coachwork by Ghia on one of just 3 or 4 T101C chassis & drive trains that Exner spotted on a visit to Molsheim in eastern France in the late 1940's, buying that rolling chassis from Le Patron himself. Both cars still exist today, in the collection of General William Lyons USAF Ret. in California (I've seen both cars, and they are stunning).

Renwall introduced those Revival kits in either late 1965 or early 1966, but they were notoriously poor sellers--several hobby wholesalers still had unsold stock of them well into the early 1980's, believe it or not. I think it's doubtful that even if the tooling could be found, they'd do very much in the marketplace today.

Art

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Daddy...I dind't know about the Sizzler parts in the S'cool bus. Which parts made the leap? Thanks for the insight on that one! TIM

UPDATE - in reading the rest of this thread, I see some are questioning this. I have the Sizzler kit but not sure I have the S'Cool Bus...wonder if anyone can pull out the kits and look (and photographs would be even better).

I think it somewhat unlikely that an old kit like the Sizzler would have been used to source the Daniell one-off's like the S'cool....that's why this statement caught my interest.

TIM

I have done this comparison. My findings were the two (LOL, one multi engined kit and the other a dual engined kit) engines were similar, however the valve covers were different and the blocks were different , in that one had a semblance of a transmission and the other didn't. Molding marks on the inside of the engines were also different as were the exhaust mountings on each. Photos? That would be great, however I have made a move to a new home and stuff is everywhere.

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I have done this comparison. My findings were the two (LOL, one multi engined kit and the other a dual engined kit) engines were similar, however the valve covers were different and the blocks were different , in that one had a semblance of a transmission and the other didn't. Molding marks on the inside of the engines were also different as were the exhaust mountings on each. Photos? That would be great, however I have made a move to a new home and stuff is everywhere.

Thanks Greg for the info....TIM

PS - good luck with straightening out after the move. I did that a bunch of times earlier in my career and man I feel you pain, even to this day! TB

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Two of the designs were actually built as real cars: The Mercer-Cobra, coachbuilt by Ghia and the Bugatti 101C. Both cars still exist today, in the collection of General William Lyons USAF Ret. in California (I've seen both cars and they are stunning).

Art

Actually Art three of Exner's cars got built. The 1970s Stutz Bearcat II. http://darquewanderer.deviantart.com/gallery/11524833?offset=72#/d261rqn

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Actually Art three of Exner's cars got built. The 1970s Stutz Bearcat II. http://darquewandere...set=72#/d261rqn

The Stutz revival car, while using much of the lines of the original Exner renderings, really isn't done exactly as Virgil Exner designed it though, due as much to its having been introduced several years after Virgil Exner Sr's death in the late 1960's (the pontoon shaped front fenders with 'bubbled" clear plastic headlight covers being the principal change--headlight covers were not allowed on US spec automobiles for many years). There was a fourth "Exneresque" revival car proposed for production, the 1966 Duesenberg from a new, startup company, The Duesenberg Corporation, which used a lot of Exner themes though. Just one prototype was built, on a Chrysler Imperial platform, bodywork again from Ghia--for showing to potential investors in the company, as well as to prospective buyers. The Duesenberg Corporation even enlisted Fritz Duesenberg, son of Augie Duesenberg--brother of the legendary Fred Duesenberg, himself the designer of the famed Duesenberg Model J of 1929-37. Fritz Duesenberg was made an honorary director of Duesenberg Corporation, but took no actual role in that company--he was in rather poor health, and by the early 1970's, was a resident of the Indiana Soldiers Home (now Indiana Veteran's Home) at West Lafayette IN, and passed away there in 1976, having been virtually an invalid ridden with arthritis for several years. This car never reached production, as not enough investor interest resulted in capital needed to start making them for sale. 1966 Duesenberg Model D:

nberg_Model_D_Concept_01_Exner-vi.jpg

This car still exists, on display at the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Museum in Auburn IN, resting there in company with several actual Duesenberg Model A's, a Model X, a Model Y, and a nice collection of Model J's.

Of the two exact copies of Exner's Revival Cars, the Mercer-Cobra, and the Bugatti Type 101C, the Bugatti comes forth as the only car ever built EXACTLY as Exner intended, given his ownership of one of three Type 101C rolling chassis, and was built to his instruction by Ghia for his personal use. The Mercer became the Mercer Cobra, built under commission for the American Brass and Copper Institute, a trade organization of companies producing brass, copper and bronze products, as a means of proposing to the auto industry the use of polished brass, copper and bronze trim on automobiles. As such, it was built on a stretched 289 Cobra chassis, but is probably a bit smaller than what Exner might have envisoned originally--but it sure does capture very well the concept as Exner intended.

I have a couple of each of those in my build pile still--one of these days!

Art

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'd love to see this kit backdated, especially with the cut out Paris street scene. I doubt it will ever happen, but I'm sure a few Man from U.N.C.L.E. fans would be happy to see it return. Sadly, this eventually was modified into the "Piranha" dragster. :(/>

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. car (later issued as the Mademoiselle Secret Agent 97 without any alterations) and the Piranha were first issued around the same time. They didn't share a single part.

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I remember that one. wonder if the light feature is still in the kit? It was just a hole in the grill section that held a bulb.

The '64 Galaxie annual kit that had the working light feature is now the Modified Stocker kit. The curbside kit that Model King issued a few years back is the original 1964 promotional model, later issued as a Craftsman Series kit and as an Ertl Blueprinter mail-order item. Apparently AMT created two '64 Galaxie tools: one for promotional models, another for the kits. Some parts interchange between the two (which would make sense because AMT would have used one set of masters to create the two tools).

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